Gadget of the Month:

One Touch Door Stopper

We are still in the midst of the California fire season. As a long time California resident, I’m no stranger to these brutal fires. Many homeowners have lost their homes and sentimental belongings due to this tragedy.

If you own a single family home, it is required that you have a self-closing mechanism between the garage and the house. This prevents fire from spreading into the rest of your home. If you don’t have this, you can easily switch out your door hinges or install a door closer.

DIY: 2 things that you can do

To switch out your door hinges, simply take one of the original hinges to your local hardware store and find a self-closing hinge with the same size plate. These hinges look like normal hinges, but they have a bigger barrel for the spring. Tip: switch these hinges one at a time and you won’t have to take the door down! 

If you have an older door, you may want to look into installing a door closer instead. Both are fine, but older doors may require odd or hard-to-find hinges. Both of these options require simple tools. 

So, now that you have a self-closing door, what happens if you are unloading a trunk full of groceries? That’d be a lot of hassle to deal with the self closing door, wouldn’t it? 

One solution is to replace the hinges with normal ones, but that violates building code. A better solution is to install a one-touch door stopper. What’s nice about this door stopper is the one touch button to release it. You can do it with your foot, unlike others where you need to flip them up by hand.

Here is a commercial, heavy duty option.

It only takes 3 screws and an impact driver. I did mine in less than 1 min! You don’t necessarily need an impact driver, but as a dad, I find it’s a huge time-saving tool to have around the house. I strongly recommend every household owning one of these.